Translation students take part in virtual exchange with University College London

This Wednesday, students from Universidad de Montevideo’s Translation degree took part in a Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) exchange with students from the Spanish Language degree at University College London (UCL) in the UK.

The class engaged with two literary excerpts: one from Argentine author Eduardo Sacheri’s Los dueños del mundo and the other from Miriam by Truman Capote. In conversation with professors and students from UCL, students from the Literary Translation module debated how to best preserve the original text’s meaning in translating it into a new language.

The shared virtual class offered a unique opportunity for intercultural exchange, where native Spanish and English speakers provided insight into the cultural subtext of both passages. Students drew on their personal understandings of Southern Cone and Anglophone cultures to reach these conclusions, offering valuable insights into both the texts and cultures themselves.

Mazal Oaknín, Associate Professor at UCL’s School of European Languages, Culture and Society, commented: “It was a huge pleasure to participate in such a valuable and enriching initiative. From the first encounter, our colleagues at the UM were flexible and very welcoming. We decided on a translation class working in both directions, led by native-speaking professors and experts in the teaching of each language. This considerably expands the possibilities in terms of textual nuance, cultural elements, tone, lexis, and many other aspects.”

UM Translation Professor Eugenia Flores, who led the class alongside Professor Sylvia Mernies, shared: “The collaborative literary translation class was an enjoyable space of exchange and learning. It was a very enriching experience in which the class flowed nicely and the groups integrated smoothly. The preparation and the class took place without any difficulties, and each participant contributed valuable perspectives from their unique point of view. We look forward to more encounters like this in the future, and to collaborating again with our colleagues at UCL to create meaningful and formative experiences for our students.”

The COIL proved to be a fruitful exchange on both ends, and a positive international experience for UM students.